trouble - evnne

11

With slightly more energy but very much aching and drained bodies, the hunters trudged out the dungeon. They were greeted by a couple of their members, all pleasantly surprised the raid was accomplished in such a short span of time.

"As expected from your three guilds," Woongki sighed, a smile playing at his lips. The hunters watched as the dungeon was sealed by Onepact, as it folded into itself.

"Good work," Woongki finished off, "The rewards will be sent to you by tomorrow. Rest up, guys."

After the successful raid, the exhausted Evnne members were carted home to rest. If they could, they would spend every waking moment around Jihoo in the hospital ward, but as Dongyeol claimed, the medical staff were so bothered and distracted by Evnne's constant presence in the hospital that Evnne was banned from the hospital. "I'll only entertain you if your leg is chopped off or something," Dongyeol spat out, "Other than that, stay at home for god's sake. I'll call when Jihoo regains consciousness, I promise."

It was like they were on house arrest, besides Jeonghyeon leaving to pop by Seunghwan's workshop, none of them left their headquarters.

Occasionally, the members of the other two guilds would poke their nose in to keep them company, or to hold a couple spars here and there.

Tiot swung by (unannounced but settling in as though they owned the place) after their mandatory annual checkup, hammered and drained.

"If you're so tired, why don't you go home and sleep?" Hanbin nagged as he shook Junhyun who had draped himself over Evnne's couch like a towel.

"I can't move anymore," Junhyun whined, nicely deflecting Hanbin's question while still managing to strongly resist as Hanbin tugged at him.

"The real reason is our AC is busted," Minseoung explained, lying as still as a log, "And Junhyun missed you. Plus, you guys are so lucky, the centre is two blocks down. We'd take half an hour to get home."

"I hate the checkups," Woojin complained, leaning against Junghyun who sympathetically patted his head.

"When's yours?" Hong Keonhee asked, the only Tiot member with enough energy to sit up straight as his lanky form perched on a barstool.

Everyone's eyes flit to Keita, the leader being the only responsible one who was aware and remembered. The oldest sighed, "It's supposed to be in two weeks, I'm thinking of asking for them to postpone, since Jihoo..."

Checkups were strenuous, mostly because it was to evaluate if hunters' rankings changed and to determine if the hunter was still fit for raids, typically taking up an entire day.

Everyone fell silent and to break up the awkwardness, Junhyun piped up, "Can you guys order pizza?"

"You pay for it."

"I'll give you a kiss on the cheek."

"I will cut your hand off."

After a pizza party, it took two days for Tiot to willingly leave Evnne's headquarters, Junhyun was the last one that needed to be forced out the doors before Evnne reclaimed their space entirely to themselves. Most of the members withdrew to their own rooms, until Keita got a sudden phone call from a certain healer.

"Dongyeol? What's up?"

"Jihoo's awake."

And Evnne made it to the hospital in record-breaking speed. After narrowly avoiding multiple car accidents and bringing some people along to the hospital, they had sprinted to Jihoo's room like madmen, startling one too many patients and staff.

After Hanbin wrenched open the door (permanently damaging it), they piled into the room to see Jihoo sitting up on the bed, looking bored, a nurse tending to an IV drip by his side.

"Jihoo!"

The boy's face lit up when he realised Evnne were here, a ghost of a smile on the nurse's face as she quietly flit out the room to give them space. Immediately, Evnne piled onto Jihoo's bed, enveloping him in a tight embrace, careful not to injure him or touch his IV drip, but every member was holding him in some way, Hanbin's head pressed into Jihoo's shoulder, murmuring words of gratitude, Seungeon clutching Jihoo's left hand as tears trickled down his face, Junghyun squeezed himself behind Jihoo to hug him from the back.

When they finally begrudgingly peeled themselves off Jihoo after protests of "it's hot" and "you guys smell", the members settled on Jihoo's hospital bed to study him. He looked skinnier and his face ashen but you'd expect that from a person fresh out of a comatose state.

"Did Keita cry?" Jihoo croaked out, accepting the cup of water Yunseo immediately proffered.

"That's the first thing you-"

"I got the video," Jeonghyeon assured him.

"You little shit-"

"How did you have time to video that?" Junghyun asked, more amazed than anything.

"Couldn't miss the chance," Jeonghyeon shrugged, a playful twinkle in his eyes as Keita shoved him off the bed.

"How do you feel?" Hanbin asked, eyes shining slightly. Jihoo gulped down the last of the water and replied, "Sleepy."

"You've been out for two weeks-"

The entire room burst into laughter, the older members completely overcome with relief that Jihoo was alright. Then, Jihoo's head jerked up to look at the others, "Have you gone back into the dungeon yet?"

"We closed it up already," Keita said soothingly. "But did anyone see anything strange?" Jihoo pressed on.

Intrigued by the unexpected question, Yunseo answered, "Not that we noticed."

Jihoo fell silent, mulling over something, before he suddenly said, in a hushed voice, "Do you know what I saw before I fell? I saw a rip in the sky." The members, though startled and confused, waited patiently as Jihoo fidgeted, his fingers twisting together before he continued, "As though I was looking out at the universe or something. It looked scary, but incredible."

All the members exchanged wary and uneasy looks, having never experienced anything like this.

And suddenly, there was a chime.

"Evnne, are you there?"

"Seowon's back," Seungeon gasped when they all received the telekinetic call from the telepath who had been on leave.

"Oh thank god," Seowon sighed when he realised they were responding, "I'm really sorry for interrupting you guys when Jihoo just woke up, but another dungeon just opened up. I don't know why-"

"What about the other guilds?" Keita asked, more concerned than anything.

"You cut me off," Seowon replied dryly, "What I was going to say was I don't know why there are suddenly so many dungeons, but you are the only guild left. Onepact and Tiot are in two different dungeons at the moment, Toz is doing their annual checkups, today of all days, so they're out of commission for now."

"You're telling us there are three dungeons open right now?" Jeonghyeon said, completely baffled.

Seowon groaned, "No one saw this coming, we don't know what's wrong with all the dungeons. Even the Hao Yue members rushed back to China, since the same phenomenon is happening all over the place. Evnne, please."

"Okay, but Jihoo is not going in," Hanbin declared, meeting no resistance from the older members.

"What! Hey, I've been bedridden for weeks, I-"

"Evnne, let's go, Jihoo, you stay here," Keita instructed, the Evnne members hopped off Jihoo's bed, Jeonghyeon dropped a cheeky kiss on the top of Jihoo's head and before you knew it, Evnne had departed, leaving Jihoo sulking on his bed.

Unfortunately, Jihoo is not the type of kid to sit still and wait patiently.